Posts

Ukraine-Russia Talks End With Little Progress and Hints of an Impasse

Image
American negotiators trumpeted plans for a prisoner swap, but that was small recompense for months of diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration.  By  Kim Barker The New York Times , Feb. 5, 2026 Updated  11:23 a.m. ET After just three hours, Russia, Ukraine and the United States declared themselves done with the latest round of peace talks on Thursday, offering scant sign of progress toward ending a war that is grinding toward a fifth year despite the Trump administration’s diplomatic interventions. A familiar pattern played out as two days of negotiations wrapped up in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Everyone said the talks were productive. More talks were planned. Yet with little to show for them but an announced exchange of prisoners of war, the major sticking points in any peace deal appeared a long ways from being unstuck. Officials did not say what was discussed behind closed doors. A louder message came a day before the talks, when Russia u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Scoop: U.S. and Russia agree to observe New START nuclear pact after expiration

Image
Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner speak before a meeting with Putin in Moscow last month. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/pool/AFP via Getty  Barak Ravid , Dave Lawler , Marc Caputo , Colin Demarest, AXIOS, [Feb 5];  See also The U.S. and  Russia  are closing in on a deal to continue to observe the  expiring New START  arms control treaty beyond its expiration on Thursday, three sources familiar with those talks tell Axios. --Two of the sources cautioned that the draft plan still needed approval from both presidents. An additional source confirmed that negotiations had been taking place over the past 24 hours in Abu Dhabi, but not that an agreement had been reached. Why it matters:  New START is the last major guardrail constraining the nuclear arsenals of the two countries that together hold some 85% of the world's warheads. Drivin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vladimir Putin Isn’t Winning in Ukraine

Image
The Russian death toll may be as high as 325,000 in four years. By The Editorial Board,  The Wall Street Journal,   Feb. 3, 2026 5:25 pm  ET Russian President Vladimir Putin   VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/SPUTNIK/POOL/ASSOCIATED PRESS President Trump has his hands full in Venezuela while also pondering military action in Iran, but the Ukraine war is grinding on and  Vladimir Putin  wants the world to think he can’t be defeated. A new, detailed report on the war underscores that Mr. Putin isn’t winning, and Mr. Trump can still apply military and economic pressure to produce a peace that is honorable. Russian forces have taken an astonishing 1.2 million casualties in Ukraine since 2022,   according to estimates   from Seth Jones and Riley McCabe of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Russian death toll may be as high as 325,000—more than five times than in all Soviet and Russian conflicts combined since World War II....
Post a Comment
Read more